In Pursuit of a High Performance School Ginny Elliott, South Tama Schools, Curtis Klaassen, PE, Xiao

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In Pursuit of a High Performance SchoolGinny
Elliott, South Tama Schools, Curtis Klaassen, PE,
Xiaohui Zhou, MS, Energy Resource Station, Iowa
Energy Center
DISCUSSION The tests clearly showed that
daylighting can lower the needed wattage of added
light in a room. Over time, the savings could be
significant. In the 3 day study, the B rooms
used 81 less wattage than the A rooms. Added
light in the A rooms raised the lighting to
levels which exceed recommended work surface
levels. Although this is not a bad thing, it is
not the best use of energy. In the daylighting
rooms, the lighting levels always stayed at 55
footcandles or higher, which is above the
recommended level of 50 footcandles at work
surface level in a classroom setting. A concern
with daylighting which showed up in the rooms was
the issue of glare. With direct light streaming
into the rooms, the computer screen placed in the
room was often hard to see because of the glare
from the sun. This could cause a problem for
students working in a classroom setting. An
issue with successfully saving energy by
daylighting is the need to raise and lower light
levels as the outside light increases or
decreases. Daylighting is a topic highly studied
in new construction, but more study is needed in
existing structures to find the most efficient
use of resources to gain the greatest level of
learning.
METHODS This study was set up at the Energy
Resource Station. The facility has a set of 4
matched rooms which are oriented facing the East,
South, West, and an interior pair of rooms with
no outside light available. I chose to focus on
the 3 outside pairs of rooms and also looked at
window coverings as a way to make the daylighting
more indirect. The East rooms had no window
coverings blocking the direct rays of the sun.
The South rooms had light filtering shades on
both windows and the West rooms had mini blinds
set on horizontal. In the study, light levels
were measured each minute in each room during the
hours when students normally are in my classroom.
When the light levels went above 60 lumens in
the B rooms the lights dimmed until they were
off. They stayed off until the light levels went
down to 55 lumens at tabletop level. The first
day of the run there was a storm where a power
outage affected the results. Therefore, I used
the data from the next 3 days of the study.
ABSTRACT Research relating to High Performance
Schools shows a clear link between daylighting
and student achievement. Schools which
effectively use daylighting can significantly
reduce their use of additional lighting and see
clear gains in student achievement. This project
was designed to examine the energy which may be
conserved while adequate light levels are
maintained by using available daylighting.
BACKGROUND In 1998, the Heschong Mahone Study
demonstrated that students who worked under the
highest daylighting conditions experienced an
average 21 increase in learning rates compared
to students in classrooms with the least
daylighting. These results were re-examined in
2002 as a result of questions raised by peer
review and were again validated. Electric
lighting can account for 30-50 of a school
buildings electric power consumption. The High
Performance School Buildings philosophy is to
design for high efficiency and visual comfort.
One aspect of that is to integrate electric
lighting and daylighting strategies. It is a
long ingrained habit to walk into a room and turn
on the lights without thought of how bright the
room actually may be. In order to save energy,
the lights need to be on only when needed. The
chart below shows the daylighting codes at midday
conditions.
REFERENCES Daylighting in Schools - An
Investigation into the Relationship Between
Daylighting and Human Performance Heschong
Mahone Group, Fair Oaks, California, August 20,
1999 Re-Analysis Report -- Daylighting in
Schools, Additional Analysis Heschong Mahone
Group, Fair Oaks, California, February 14,
2002 High Performance School Buildings Resource
and Strategy Guide, Deane Evans, FAIA,
Sustainable Buildings Industry Council, Second
Edition, 2004 Myths about Energy in Schools
Energy Smart Schools, US Department of
Energy Lighting for Schools James R. Benya, PE,
National Clearinghouse for Educational
Facilities Guide for Daylighting Schools
Innovative Design, Daylight Dividends, Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute, 2004 High Performance
Schools The Iowa Experience Curtis J. Klaassen,
PE, Iowa Energy Center, Energy Resource Station

RESULTS Each of the 3 B rooms used fewer watts
than the matching A rooms. East B lights
never went on during the time of the study. That
meant the A room used 11.35KWH of electricity
and the B room used none. The southern
exposure rooms with the shades that blocked 64
of the direct sunlight were less illuminated by
daylight so both rooms used electricity although
the B room used less. South A used 11.35 KWH
and South B used 3.85 KWH. The difference was
greater in the West rooms. West A used 11.32
KWH and West B used 2.55 KWH. The difference
between conventional lighting and daylit rooms
was 27.62 KWH saved during the 3 day test run.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Curt and Joe and all the staff
at the Energy Resource Center made the experience
learning-filled and applicable to real-school
situations. Thanks to Adah Leshem-Ackerman for
organizing the program and providing us with many
great experiences. I have appreciated the other
DOE ACTS members for their expertise and
willingness to share, teach and learn. I
appreciate Charlie for driving and Lucas for his
poster help. Thanks to the US Department of
Energy Office of Science and Ames Lab for
sponsoring the program.
RESEARCH QUESTION/HYPOTHESIS How much energy can
be saved using available daylighting while still
maintaining adequate light levels in the
classroom?